Is it the same for agencies as it is for people? When the ’Big
Three-O’ looms, does it mean ’stop thinking laddish, start thinking
responsible’?
Or is being 30 like being 29, only wiser? The 150 or so staff at
International Marketing Promotions, the promotional marketing arm of
DMB&B, might well be asking these questions. IMP has just reached its
30th birthday and in the world of below-the-line, that equates with
venerable old age.
Certainly there are few around today that can match IMP for
longevity.
The direct marketing agency, Brann, pipped it by a year, and Young &
Rubicam’s Wunderman Cato Johnson launched at much the same time. But
Promotional Campaigns didn’t come along until 1971.
’And we are still the market leader,’ says John Farrell, the individual
who, more than any other, is associated with IMP’s success through the
years. This is the man who joined the agency in 1980 as an account
handler on pounds 4,250 a year, and rocked adland when he was made the
chairman of DMB&B in London in 1995.
His words ’market leader’ are chosen with care. Ten years ago, IMP was
acknowledged to be the UK’s biggest sales promotion agency. Even so, its
dominance was somewhat exaggerated.
In 1995, IMP’s turnover dropped pounds 15 million and staff numbers fell
by 10 per cent. This was blamed on the trend towards payment by fees
rather than commission and coincided with Texaco refining its loyalty
programme.
As a result, the picture is less clear cut today. For a start, it
depends which agencies are being compared. IMP absorbed its sister
agency, DMB&B Direct, in 1993 and, like many whose roots were in sales
promotion, now sees itself as fully integrated. According to IMP’s chief
executive, John Quarrey, direct marketing is the fastest growing side of
the business, and a major priority. Rank IMP against pure direct
marketing agencies and it comes in just below WWAV Rapp Collins and
Brann.
Compare it with agencies with a similar heritage to its own, on the
other hand, and it is still probably the biggest on turnover.
So ’biggest’ is now more a matter of dispute. Farrell and Quarrey would
claim market leadership in the way the agency has helped change the
culture of the below-the-line industry. IMP pioneered the use of
advertising-style planning and creative teams, the move from ad hoc
projects to fee-based relationships and the development of an
international network.
It has also flowered creatively in the 90s. Under Farrell, there was a
conscious decision to invest more heavily in the creative product. One
result of that was the appointment of Andy Blackford, formerly with
Saatchi & Saatchi’s below-the-line agency, Equator, and a founder of
Impact (now FCA!), as group creative director in 1993.
’I was hired to do a job, which was to give them creative credibility,’
Blackford says. ’Before I arrived,they had taken on DMB&B Direct but the
merger had hardly happened, except in name.
’I had to integrate the two sides, which wasn’t too difficult. Quite
literally, I got them to do a cultural swap. I got the sales promotion
people to do a Children’s Society mailer and the direct marketers to do
a McVitie’s offer. They all grumbled, but some fresh perspectives
emerged - and after that the problem was solved.’
What also happened under Blackford was that the agency began winning
lots of prizes, notably at the Direct Marketing Association, Sales
Promotion Consultants Association and Institute of Sales Promotion
awards.
Before that, IMP hadn’t taken awards seriously. Quarrey says: ’The
reason we didn’t win was because we didn’t enter. We weren’t fussed
about them and I don’t think our clients were. I don’t think
below-the-line award schemes were that good in the 80s. Andy persuaded
us that winning awards was a signal to the outside world that we took
creativity seriously. We entered and started winning because the product
was good.’
And there have been some classics. Chris Satterthwaite, the former IMP
chief executive who departed with a number of senior colleagues to HHCL
in 1993, singles out the Texaco road safety campaign, ’Children should
be seen and not hurt’ - an early example of what’s now dubbed
cause-related marketing.
For Farrell, now the president of DMB&B for North America, the all-time
favourite is the campaign to raise pounds 50 million for Great Ormond
Street Hospital. ’This was immensely rewarding for me, both personally
and professionally, and involved a whole series of activities. I
maintain my involvement with the hospital because I would never want to
disengage.’
And art directors, because they have been the target audience, will be
familiar with another award-winner on a smaller scale: the quirky
campaign for Tony Stone Images.
This is a far cry from IMP’s origins in the 60s - an era in which most
ad agencies provided sales promotion as a free service to
advertisers.
In what was then a novel move, Masius Wynne-Williams (the predecessor of
DMB&B) incorporated IMP as a subsidiary in 1968, partly as a way of
luring back Geoff Marshall who had been the agency’s merchandising
specialist.
’Geoff was the first employee, I was the second and Sandy Scott, now the
chairman of Interfocus, was the third,’ Brian Francis, a sales promotion
veteran, recalls.
The embryonic agency flourished, then faltered. It set up its own
fulfilment house, but a postal strike in the early 70s almost bankrupted
it. ’We had to cut back from more than 100 staff to 15,’ Francis
says.
By 1977, he’d risen to be IMP’s managing director, only to lead an
audacious breakaway five years later. Among those who went with him to
found Francis Killingbeck Bain were the creative director, Chris
Killingbeck, and the youthful John Farrell. But only briefly.
’To launch the new agency, we cut back on our cars to Golf GTIs,’
Francis says. ’Within six weeks, IMP had tempted John back with more
money and a Porsche.’
The rest, as they say, is history.
IMP CHRONOLOGY
1967: Unofficial launch. First managing director: Geoff Marshall; first
employees: Brian Francis, Sandy Scott
1968: Incorporated as a limited company, a subsidiary of Masius
Wynne-Williams. Early clients: Colgate Palmolive, Libby, Kleenex
1971-2: Postal strike causes near disaster as fulfilment operation is
closed and staff reduced from more than 100 to 15
1977: Brian Francis appointed as managing director
1981: Agency moves from Kingston to Sherwood Street, London. John
Farrell starts out as an account executive
1982: Brian Francis leads breakaway to form Francis Killingbeck Bain
Mid 80s: John Farrell and Lance Smith appointed as joint managing
directors and later joint chief executives
1986: Planning department launched with Reg West
1987: Launches data- planning section with Mark Piper. IMP’s
second-string agency, Marketing Drive, completes a management buyout
1992: Lance Smith transfers to DMB&B as chief operating officer
1993: IMP merges with DMB&B Direct. Andy Blackford begins a two-year
stint as creative director and appoints Dave Harris as head of art, his
eventual successor
1994: ’A slight wobble’, in the words of current chief executive, John
Quarrey, as the chief executive, Chris Satterthwaite, leads an exodus to
HHCL
1995: Farrell, by now the European president of IMP, is appointed as
chairman of DMB&B Group in London. All of the group’s agencies move into
offices at 123 Buckingham Palace Road
1996: John Quarrey is made chief executive, and sees his priorities as
expanding the agency’s direct marketing and international capabilities
and attracting the best people
1997: Farrell leaves for New York to be president of DMB&B, North
America.
